Walking San Francisco

PARKING: Two-hour street parking is available around Corona Heights, especially on 16th St. near the Flint St. entrance. Two hours doesn’t leave enough time, so Sunday (when parking is unlimited) is a good day to make this walk. Off-street parking is available at the Market and Noe Garage.

The three hilltop parks in this tour are only a few blocks apart but couldn’t be more different. Corona Heights is a rocky outcrop just above the Castro District. Buena Vista Park’s densely wooded terrain sprouts abruptly from the Haight. Alamo Square is a grassy quadrant amid classy Victorian houses. All have sweeping views of San Francisco, each offering a unique perspective, but the real pleasure of taking in all three in one shot is in passing through such varied topography within a short space. Wear good shoes for hiking, and be prepared to traverse steep, unpaved trails.

Walk Description

Assuming you’ve either parked your car or disembarked from public transit down in the Castro, start by climbing from the corner of 16th and Flint Streets up to

Corona Heights Park. From just about anywhere along upper Market Street, if you look to the west, you’ll see the red, jagged cliff to which we’re headed. Begin ascending to the right of the tennis courts. It’s a pretty barren hill, with a few trees, grasses, and wildflowers.

The most distinctive feature of Corona Heights is the rock itself: the reddish stone is visibly cracked on the surface, and the trails are strewn with squared-off chips and chunks. Pick up a piece and look it over. This rock is chert, formed by plant and animal matter that settled on an ancient seafloor and became petrified before being thrust up here. Similar rock formations turn up elsewhere in the city, but Corona Heights is the most striking example. The hill is crested by dramatic, jagged pinnacles of rock, some of it spray-painted on by taggers. From here, take a look around and enjoy a broad view of the city—in addition to the downtown skyline and city hall, you’ll see all of the South of Market area, the Mission, the Castro, Noe Valley, Twin Peaks, and, immediately to the north, Buena Vista Park (our next stop). At lower elevations of Corona Heights are a well-situated playground, the

Randall Museum, and a patch of green where people can liberate their dogs from their leashes. The Randall Museum is an educational museum for kids that has a combined emphasis on nature and the arts. It was completely remodeled in 2018 and has a small café if you need a snack.

Descend the other side of the hill toward the dog area and exit the park onto Roosevelt Way at Museum Way. Turn right on Roosevelt and bear left onto Park Hill Avenue. A block up is Buena Vista Avenue, which rings

Buena Vista Park. Cross Buena Vista and turn left. The sidewalk here runs around the base of the park’s southern slope. Opposite, the large peachy building at 351–355 Buena Vista Ave. E. made a brief appearance in Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Constructed in 1928 as

St. Joseph’s Hospital, this historical landmark is now condominiums. Once you’re past it, look for a set of well-maintained stairs leading up next to a green REC AND PARK sign. In the 1960s, hippies frolicked here. Near the top, you’ll reach an asphalt path that will serve you well the rest of the way. It winds to good lookout points along the north and east side of the park, and it also dips down into a shady gulch that’s very sheltered. By now you are surely appreciating the size and varied topography of this inner-city park. Originally called Hill Park, it was set aside by the city in 1867 and is San Francisco’s oldest park. Many of the trees were planted on behalf of Adolph Sutro, who annually observed Arbor Day by donating seedlings. John McLaren, who for half a century was superintendent of Golden Gate Park, also oversaw the forestation of Buena Vista Park. If you look closely in some of the trailside drainages, you may find yourself gazing on a Victorian headstone fragment. When the city moved nearly all of its cemeteries to Colma in the early 1900s, unclaimed headstones were reused for gutters, among other things, and this is one of the parks that benefited.

Find your way toward the western edge of the park. As you descend, look for a set of stairs just past a wooden railed overlook and turn left to descend them toward the exit near the end of Frederick Street. Turn right onto Buena Vista Avenue, which curves around the park and leads to Haight Street. Along the way, take note of the ornate gate by metalsmith E. A. Chase at

No. 731 Buena Vista, commissioned by Graham Nash (of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young) when he lived here. Years later, singer Bobby McFerrin owned the home as well. Next door, the mansion at

No. 737 Buena Vista was built in 1897 for Richard Spreckels, whose uncle was sugar magnate Claus Spreckels. In the house’s early days, writers Ambrose Bierce and Jack London supposedly resided here briefly as well (some claim that London penned White Fang here). More recently, Danny Glover lived here for a spell.

Past Haight Street, Yerba Buena Avenue becomes Central Avenue. Follow it to the Panhandle, the strip of shady greenery between Oak and Fell Streets. Cross the park to the Fell Street side and turn right. Where the Panhandle ends, turn left at Baker, then turn right at Hayes Street.

Alamo Square Park is three blocks up. Enter midway, about where Pierce Street hits Hayes, and climb the gentle slope to the top of the park. It’s fairly conventional as San Francisco parks go—a hilly lawn with a grove of trees at its center, a single fenced-in tennis court—but the view from the park is a classic. Head over the crest and down the eastern slope, and you’ll spot the photographers. They’re always here, snapping shots of the row of impeccable Victorian houses along Steiner Street, with the downtown skyline beyond. It’s a surefire cover shot—you’ll have seen the image on scores of guidebooks and in the opening montage to the popular 1990s sitcom Full House. The Victorian stars of this view, the

Painted Ladies at 710–722 Steiner St., are notable mostly for their near uniformity and for having changed little over the years. They’re not the most beautiful Victorians in the city or even on Alamo Square. The house at 1198 Fulton St., on the other side of the park, is much more striking but lacks the dramatic backdrop.

The jagged rocks of Corona Heights Park afford stellar perches from which to take in the city skyline.

Head down to Steiner Street and turn left. While crossing Fulton Street, look to the right and you’ll see the street descends directly toward city hall. It’s a perfect vantage point of the building’s handsome, helmetlike dome. On the opposite corner, at 1000 Fulton, the huge house with the mansard roof is called the

Archbishop’s Mansion, because it was built in 1904 for Patrick William Riordan, archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco. The building has since been everything from an orphanage to a psychiatric hospital and now operates as a co-living space run by Roam. You can rent a room through Airbnb; if you’re lucky, maybe you’ll get to snooze in the archbishop’s old bedroom.

Continue on Steiner. At No. 1057, on the corner of Golden Gate Avenue,

The Chateau Tivoli is one of the city’s most distinctive buildings. It jabs at the sky with a full complement of turrets and dainty weathervanes, the Victorian architectural equivalent of propeller caps. The building has some mighty alluring curves, especially around its bay windows. It was built in 1892 and has served in a variety of capacities, including as a rooming house during the 1960s and ’70s. More recently it has been beautifully restored and converted into a hotel (with surprisingly reasonable rates). Walk on around the corner, where the adjacent apartment buildings (at 1409–1417 Golden Gate) are collectively known as the Seattle Block. The buildings went up at the same time as the Tivoli and are equally well preserved, and collectively they make a marvelous row.

Turn left and follow Golden Gate Avenue to Divisadero Street, where a left-hand turn brings you to the award-winning fried chicken at

Brenda’s Meat and Three, a solid soul food joint. For lighter but equally delicious fare, head farther down Divisadero to

Souvla, a casual Greek spot that offers rotisserie meats tucked into pita or heaped on salads; be sure to leave room for some frozen yogurt with baklava crumbles and honey. Heading farther south on Divisadero will eventually get you back to the Castro.

Points of Interest

Corona Heights Park Roosevelt Way and Museum Way; 415-831-2700, sfrecpark.org/destination/corona-heights-park

Randall Museum 199 Museum Way; 415-554-9600, randallmuseum.org

Buena Vista Park Buena Vista Ave. and Haight St.; 415-831-2700, sfrecpark.org/destination/buena-vista-park

St. Joseph’s Hospital (former) 351–355 Buena Vista Ave. (no published phone number or website)

No. 731 Buena Vista (former Nash/McFerrin home) 731 Buena Vista Ave. (private residence)

Richard Spreckels Mansion 737 Buena Vista Ave. (private residence)

Alamo Square Park Steiner St. and Hayes St.; 415-218-0259, sfrecpark.org/destination/alamo-square

Painted Ladies 710–722 Steiner St. (private residences)

Archbishop’s Mansion 1000 Fulton St.; 415-563-7872, airbnb.com/rooms/24354841

The Chateau Tivoli 1057 Steiner St.; 415-776-5462, chateautivoli.com

Brenda’s Meat and Three 919 Divisadero St.; 415-926-8657, brendasmeatandthree.com

Souvla 517 Hayes St.; 415-400-5458, souvla.com